Van Gogh recycled: Four million bottles used in Taiwan replica

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A Taiwan company has used four million colorful plastic bottles to produce a giant replica of Vincent van Gogh’s painting ‘The Starry Night’ to promote recycling.

The installation covers 53 hectares of the Starry Paradise park on the outskirts of Keelung city in Taiwan and was opened to the public early this year to mark the 125th anniversary of the Dutch painter’s death.

“We were thinking to combine the idea of environmental protection with PET (recycled) bottles and this landscape to create a piece of art, so that everyone can get to know another side of recycling,” said Aisin Yeh, who is in charge of public relations at Unison Developing Co. Ltd, which undertook the project.

Van Gogh finished the original piece in 1889, a year before his death, using oil paint on canvas.

Visitor reactions to the recycled replica have been varied.

“(We) came here to have a look right after work. Looking at it, I feel that it’s very big and there are a lot of PET bottles,” said 22-year-old Fan Yu-Hsiang.

“I think it looks more beautiful in photographs, but looking at it like this is an impressive sight.”